Week No. 13: Taxonomy of Education Objectives

September 19, 21, 22, 2012

     In creating lesson plans, syllabus, and unit plans, it always involves the objective as part of those plans. Bloom’s committee formulated a particular classification of objectives that would somehow ease the teacher’s difficulty in making an objective for a certain topic or subject. This classification is divided into three major categories, namely, the cognitive, the affective and psychomotor domain.

    Cognitive domain focuses on the head level of learning. It is more one the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In this domain, the intellect of the student is test. Memorization also happens here. And since memorization is all that students need to do to pass the subject, they will prefer to do such than to absorb and learn truly. The possibility of forgetting in this domain is high.

     Affective domain on the other hand, focuses on the attitude, behavior, values, likes and dislikes of the student. Here, we can ignite the interest of the students. Here also, teachers have the opportunity to improve or changed the personality of the students through values integration. Lessons best fit in this domain is more on literature related lessons.

    Lastly, the Psychomotor Domain which emphasis is more on the skills acquired and to be acquired by the students. We can apply here the famous line, “Experience is the best teacher”, since its activity is more on application of the theories discussed.

   These three domains are very helpful in changing or improving the student. If possible, the three must be present in every objective we do.

   The reporter also discussed the guidelines for implementing lesson plans. There are factors to consider ensuring the success of the execution of the lesson plan. First, the Learner Difference. Teachers must always consider that he/she have various types of learner. In lesson planning he/she must not prioritize a certain group of learners. Second, the Length of period. Some lesson plans might take a long period to finish. Since we have limited time in a school year or semester or term, the teacher has to discuss major key points of the lesson rather than scrutinize and elaborate topics. If the teacher has finished the lesson before time, he/she can throw questions to the students, or summarize the whole lesson, or remind the students to have an advance reading for the lessons not yet discussed. Third, the Flexibility. As teacher, we must anticipate out of topic questions or topic related discussions. And since there are possibilities for an out of topic questions, we are to stock more knowledge than that of the student. Anticipating out of topic questions is good, but too much of it can lead us to not to follow what must be taught to the learners. Fourth, the Learner Participation. As teacher, we must let the students feel that they belong to the class. If possible, all the learners can participate or ninety percent of the class can participate during the lesson proper. Fifth, the Learner Understanding. As teacher, we have to consider if the student really understand the lesson or is it just our intuition that they have learned. Last, the Evaluation. As teacher, we are to consider suggestions from the higher personnel or form our co-teachers.

    There are lots of things to consider in making and implementing lesson plan. In reality, planned lessons usually aren’t followed. They are just the guide of the teachers in imparting new learning to the students.